26th: In pulling off your hat to persons of distinction, as noblemen, justices, churchmen etc., make a reverence, bowing more or less according to the custom of the better bred and quality of the person. Among your equals, expect not always that they should begin with you first, but to pull off your hat when there is no need is affectation in the matter of saluting and resaluting in words, to keep the most usual custom. Yesterday's Entries 2000: Too Damn Hot EGO STUFF
I'm a proud
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EUPHEMISMS 19 September 2004 Have you noticed how no soldier ever gets killed in Iraq? Nobody ever dies in Iraq? When did "making the ultimate sacrifice" become a euphemism for being blown to bits and having your body returned to your mother in a plastic bag? I just heard on the news about how many of our military personnel have "made the ultimate sacrifice" for their country this month. Does it whitewash it more than if you say "were killed"? Does it make it any less painful if you use "made the ultimate sacrifice" instead of saying "died"? Remember those weapons of mass destruction that were such a tremendous risk to the safety and security of this country? And how when they weren’t found, Bush said it’s just ‘cause they were hidden (though why they weren’t used for defense when the country was being blown to bits is unclear)? Now Bush’s own committee says that they were never there, that there is no indication Hussein ever had anything, so more than 1,000 of our young people have made the ultimate sacrifice for a suspicion that they might have been there. Now it’s excused by saying that well, ok, he didn’t have them, but goddamm it, he wanted them, and if we hadn’t gone into Iraq he eventually would have had them. Huh? Is this administration serious? I’m sure there are lots of dictators in the world today who want weapons of mass destruction. Are we going to invade all those countries and blow them to bits just because the leaders want weapons of mass destruction? How totally stupid is that? (Oh...but the country that has weapons of mass destruction, North Korea, a country close enough to us to actually lob a bomb our way and hit its target, is allowed to continue to build up its nuclear program without serious threat from the United States) There's another euphemism bandied about in war--collateral damage. Collateral damage sounds so nice and clean and military. Collateral damage is children whose limbs have been blown off, children who have been blinded, children who suffer burns over their entire body, women killed accidentally as they hurry to the market to buy food for their families. Collateral damage is all the bodies of all the innocent people trying to live their lives while we're blowing up their country...for what purpose?
(Have we checked the body count on all that collateral damage, women and children who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? It's over 3,000 now. But there were no memorials for them when we sadly reported that the 1,000th American soldier had made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. I heard on the news tonight that the violence in Iraq is escalating so rapidly and so many people are being killed that they may now have to take the $3 billion earmarked for reconstruction of the country--you know, give the folks water and electricity?--and put it into security instead. The news report says that it is now estimated that there will be no return of normalcy in the country for up to three years, if then. Ahhh...ain’t it wonderful? Doesn’t it just make ya feel so proud to see all these kids making the ultimate sacrifice for NOTHING. Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and safe to see that we seem to be making it up as we go along, now? Doesn’t it warm the cockles of your heart to know that there are so many more people in the middle east that hate us that the number of terrorists is rising--those guys who think it’s glorious to make the ultimate sacrifice themselves in order to kill Americans? The thing that scares me the most about this is the otherwise intelligent people who are buying all this crap that is coming out of Washington, D.C. People who supported invading Iraq because the president said that they supported Al Qaeda and had weapons of mass destruction, all indications to the contrary. Then those same people decided that well, OK--maybe there weren't weapons of mass destruction, but Saddam was a bad man and it's good that he's gone. Now those people will, I am certain, get behind the president taking $3 million from the reconstruction of Iraq and putting it into increased security. Hey, George--you wanna know how to make the soldiers safe and prevent them from having to make the ultimate sacrifice? BRING THEM HOME AND END THIS INSANITY!!! Quote of the Day Mahmood Yunis Saleh, a 64-year-old former schoolmaster, now director of the main refugee camp in nearby Mosul, said he used to tell his students "to look at the West and try to be like them." "But the U.S. proved to me that I have wasted all my life in vain," he said. "It proved that it doesn't deserve any respect." -New York Times, September 16, 2004 Website of the Day Please read Joan's entry today, with its tragic photo and its graph of the rising body count. And a feeble explanation about some of the "collateral damage" I also found this blog late, but it is worthwhile scrolling down a bit and reading the April 11 entry. And for a bit of levity, you must read about experiences on the subway. |
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Created 9/15/04
